So here's the gentle profile (written by a 2014 college grad!) of Forest City Ratner's executives in the Commercial Observer's Power 100 (here's last year's short blurb):
66. MaryAnne Gilmartin and Bruce Ratner (79 in 2015)(Emphases added)
President and CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies and Executive Chairman of Forest City Ratner Companies and Executive Vice President of Forest City Enterprises
“If I have to leave my kids everyday, it better be good,” MaryAnne Gilmartin said.
And as president and CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies, she certainly makes it worthwhile. Ms. Gilmartin, who is in charge of the New York City office wing of its Ohio-based parent company, works closely with Bruce Ratner, together spearheading many of the $1.5 billion in projects FCRC has under development.
The company officially started operating as a real estate investment trust under the moniker Forest City Realty Trust on Jan. 1 of this year, which Ms. Gilmartin said has helped the company align with its peers in the public markets and exposes it to a different set of dedicated investors. “We get more velocity and trading on our stock, and it’s a much more tax-efficient structure which really allows us to drive shareholder value,” she said.
As for Ms. Gilmartin’s first love—building and operating—there is plenty going on. FCRC currently has 1,800 units of residential, 800 of which are affordable, under development at Pacific Park in Brooklyn and is topping out at the Bridge at Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island (a project that Ms. Gilmartin is particularly excited for because it will “change the way we think about spaces”).
“As I say, there’s no favorite child, but certainly the one we’ve been doing for well over a decade is Pacific Park,” Ms. Gilmartin said. “It’s an extraordinary amount of work, and only some of it is visible. It’s not just what you see and is in some ways the tip of the iceberg.”
The company also regained control of the modular factory in Brooklyn, allowing it to push forward with the construction of 461 Dean Street, which will be the tallest prefabricated building in the world when it opens in the fall.
FCRC is also priming site five [sic] of Pacific Park for development and is exploring different ideas of how to use the space. Earlier this month it was reported that FCRC and its partner Greenland USA are looking to sell a stake in three of their Pacific Park buildings.
“As a company, we decided we could do more with less of our equity and align our equity with others,” she said.—D.B.
Well, that modular building has taken twice as long as promised, and it's cost them way more than they expected.
Site 5 is not so much being "primed" as being prepared for a new environmental review, and proposed revision to state documents to approve what I've dubbed the "Brooklyn Behemoth," an astoundingly large building that would require the transfer of bulk from the arena plaza across the street.
Regarding that sale of a stake, well, Gilmartin's statement is pretty gnomic: "As a company, we decided we could do more with less of our equity and align our equity with others." In other words, take less risk?
as I've explained, the company dominated by Greenland was supposed to bring its own equity. Is this new move because of pressure on Greenland from the Chinese economy?
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